The master plan, submitted by the city’s People’s Committee to the Ministry of Construction last March, runs until 2025, and will see the current HCM City as the nucleus of a HCM City urban zone that will be expanded outside the city limits and the Thu Thiem new urban area.

The master plan calls for more than just extending the city limits on paper, but for massive restructuring and infrastructure development to ease the chaos of the city. Part of the plan includes provisions for four main corridors with major roads and highways to better link the various parts of the city.

As the city works to incorporate the abundance of industries and services sprouting with development, the plan also sets out to try and bring order to the chaos. The plan calls for specialized centres, such as tertiary education and science research centres in Viet Nam National University HCM City area (part of it in Thu Duc District) in the city’s southern urban areas, District 9 and Nha Be, Binh Chanh, Cu Chi and Hoc Mon districts.

Accompanying the growth in industry comes an attached investment in social services. The People’s committee has kept this in mind, with plans for institutions such as hospitals, medical and pharmaceutical research centres to be built in districts 2, 9, 7, and 12 and Thu Duc, Binh Chanh, Binh Tan, Nha Be, Can Gio, Hoc Mon and Cu Chi districts.

Preservation and more

With all the construction projects, some thought has also been put into conservation, as plans call for the preservation of landscapes and historical and architectural heritage, including the current city’s central areas in districts 1 and 3, District 5’s Cho Lon area, and Binh Thanh District’s Ba Chieu area.

To deal with the increasing population, plans call for new blocks to be built with building density in mind, saving land for public services and green space.

The Binh Quoi-Thanh Da urban area should also be developed, according to the plan.

In the additional inlaying areas of the city, the plan gives priority to the development of new large-scale urban and residential areas.

These areas include a 5,000ha science and technology urban area in a part of Thu Duc District and District 9, with plans for a hi-tech park, a National University HCM City park and an ethnic minority cultural and historical park.

A tourism and ecological urban areas in part of Hoc Mon District and District 12 will be set up and several new urban areas in Binh Tan and Binh Chanh districts will be created near industrial parks. Southern urban areas and new residential areas in District 7 will also be expanded.

In the outlying areas, two new large-scale urban areas will be the focus, including the northwest 6,000ha urban area in Cu Chi and Hoc Mon districts and the 1,600ha urban area in Hiep Phuoc Port.

Other new urban areas will be developed in Hoc Mon, Cu Chi, Binh Chanh, and Nha Be districts.

By 2025, the city urban zone will have 52 industrial parks and export processing zones specializing in hi-tech industry.

Details

The detailed proposal for the HCM City urban zone consists of current HCM City and other urban areas in Dong Nai Province’s Bien Hoa City, Nhon Trach and Long Thanh districts; Binh Duong Province’s Thu Dau Mot Town and Di An District; Tay Ninh Province’s Trang Bang District; and Long An Province’s Duc Hoa, Ben Luc and Tan An districts.

In the east, the corridor along the HCM City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay Expressway will link to urban areas in Dong Nai Province’s Bien Hoa City and Long Thanh and Nhon Trach districts.

In the south, the corridor will connect the urban areas along Nguyen Huu Tho Road and Hiep Phuoc Port.

The northwest corridor along National Highway 22 will connect to urban areas in Long An Province’s Duc Hoa District, Tay Ninh Province’s Trang Bang District and Binh Duong Province’s Thu Dau Mot Town.

The south and south-west corridor along Nguyen Van Linh Road will link to Binh Chanh District’s centre and the Tan Kien and southern urban areas.

Urban zone

As part of the plan, the current city’s centre, which consists of districts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 and part of Binh Thanh District, and the urban areas in Thu Thiem (737ha) will form the main nucleus of the proposed urban zone to 2025.

Other major centres will also be created in four directions, including an eastern 280ha area along the HCM City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay Expressway in District 9’s Long Truong Ward.

There will also be a northern 300ha centre in the northwest new urban area, a western 200ha centre in the area bounded by National Highway 1 in Binh Chanh District’s Tan Kien Commune, and a southern 98ha one in southern urban areas’ Park A.

The city’s People’s Committee has also proposed a 50ha sub-centre in the north of Hoc Mon District and another, also 50ha, in the south of Nha Be District.